


i counted days (you counted miles)

by shesmyplusone



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Dimension-Hopping Rose, Gen, Martha Jones & Rose Tyler Friendship, Minor Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Minor Violence, Missing Scene, Season 3 Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-20 17:16:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20679005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shesmyplusone/pseuds/shesmyplusone
Summary: Rose Tyler has spent months jumping from one dimension to another. This one feels particularly wrong. And who's this mysterious woman running for her life?-Martha Jones has been walking for so long. Will it be worth it? What will her life look like when she stops? And who was the disappearing woman?





	i counted days (you counted miles)

**Author's Note:**

> Some version of this story has been sitting on my laptop since 2012. I've been rewatching, so I decided to do some rewriting as well! Enjoy. xx

Using the dimension cannon felt different every time. This time, she was ripped through the walls of the multiverse to a world that felt…wrong. 

Rose Tyler was getting used to feeling a difference between universes. Her own, the universe of her birth, felt warm, like a snug blanket. It felt natural, the way one cannot smell the unique smell of their own home, just because they are used to it. She couldn’t even feel the passage of time, which felt as natural as the air around her. 

Pete’s World, the one she’d been living in for the last few years, felt familiar as well, like a jumper that had originally been too big but felt better after a few washes. It had taken a few weeks, but she had realized how time passed just a little quicker than she was used to, making her days seem like they flew by. It had felt odd, but now, after several years, she was used to it. 

But over the last few months, Rose had found herself in a number of different universes, jumping to the wrong one in a desperate attempt to find the Doctor and tell him of the horrors coming. Some felt like her skin was on fire, attempting to fit in a universe not built for humans. Others simply felt madly uncomfortable, like walking into another classroom where you did not belong as a child. Time would drag on, or pass so quickly she’d feel ill. 

This one was one of the worst so far. 

The moment her cannon tossed her into this dimension, it felt as if every hair on her arms was standing straight up. The blood in her veins went cold. 

This universe was Wrong. She looked around, seeing a dark street. There were some people walking quickly, looking worried, which suggested it was not as late as the night sky suggested. Rose always attempted to land in London, to be able to see what was so different from her own home, or Pete’s. But this street could have been anywhere, she realized. 

The people looked human from a distance, but Rose knew from experience that meant little. She squinted down at them and reached for the dimension cannon. She was on Earth, in the year 2008, just south of Tokyo. The timelines on the screen suggested this universe, or timeline, or wherever she was, was wrong. It wasn’t supposed to exist. Time was moving past her, according to cannon, in a way it shouldn’t be able to. 

This entire timeline was a paradox. She glanced up, fear of Reapers echoing in her mind. But she saw nothing. How this be? She continued looking around, trying to rake her mind for other things the Doctor had told her about paradoxes. The TARDIS could survive paradoxes, she remembered, thinking back to the Doctor summoning his blue box to the church. But did this universe have a Doctor? Did it have a TARDIS? 

Rose shook her head and tried to refocus. She wasn’t here to save this wayward timeline. She was here to find the Doctor, and save them all. 

She selected the timeline highlighted and made a quick note not to return. Even if she found the Doctor here, it wouldn’t be the right Doctor, and he’d be in more trouble than Rose was right now.

She knew they were running out of trips, that they were running out of days to find the Doctor. The multiverse was cracking, and the stars were going out. Each day that passed, each universe that she landed in, was one more she could cross off her list to find the Doctor. The trips were numerous, and each day that passed Rose grew more and more worried. How many more would it take?

Rose tucked the cannon away and looked around again. There weren’t even any streetlamps on this street, making the night even more suspicious. Rose stood still for a few moments, trying to decide which way to go when suddenly, a large wave of flames burst into existence. Shrieks and yells hit Rose’s ears as she automatically began to run away from the source of the flames. If all of those years with the Doctor had taught her anything, it was when to run. 

Her dimension cannon would need at least thirty minutes before she could jump anywhere. Rose really didn’t care where she landed, she thought, glancing back to see the flames rising, as long as it wasn’t here. 

As she continued to run away from the flames, Rose realized that there was only one person who was keeping up with her- another woman. She was about Rose’s own age, but the angle of the fire and darkness of the night made it hard for Rose to see much more than her profile. The air around her looked blurry, like it was hard for Rose to focus on her. But she could see her, nevertheless. She was a dark-skinned woman, with long dark hair tied back. She was dressed from head to tow in dark leather, and she ran like a marathoner. Rose couldn’t help but grin; in another world, this woman and the Doctor would have gotten along amazingly. 

“What’s going on?” Rose called over, trying to catch her attention. The woman was breathing hard but glanced over at Rose as they both ran. Rose could see a hint of surprise on her face. 

“Explosion of one of Saxon’s bases. He was getting too close to finding me!” she called back, dodging a burning piece of debris. Rose didn’t know who Saxon was, or if he was a danger, or if this woman’s cause was a good one. But she’d hung around the Doctor too much to judge a little explosion. It was how they’d met, after all. 

“Is there anyone in there who needs our help?” Rose called back, trying to dodge several larger flames. 

“There wasn’t even anyone there!” The woman shouted back. “I made sure to lure the soldiers all out. But they don’t have their tech anymore.”

This Rose could approve, easily. “Nice one!” she called back. Before the other woman could say anything, a huge wall was launched in the street in front of them. Both of them came to a quick halt. The flames were nicking their legs. Rose reached for the woman’s hand, to find her reaching for Rose as well. 

“Run!” They shouted at each other. Rose led the way, darting to the left and rushing through the flames before they grew too large. They held hands and ran for as long as they could, dodging down several dark alleys. They had to have run for nearly fifteen minutes.

When they were finally out of reach of the flames, the darkness of the night returned. They both let go of each other and Rose leaned over to get her breath back, her hair falling in front of her face. She’d been doing a lot of running in her life, but the flames had added a new element of danger to her life. 

“That was a close one,” the other woman added. She was leaning against the nearby building, completely covered in shadow. Rose still couldn’t get a good look at her. “But we’re both alright. Thanks for that save.” 

“Anytime,” Rose told her. Before she could ask her name, she felt a warm buzz against her chest. Five more minutes until she could jump. 

“What’s wrong with this universe?” Rose asked quickly, trying to get right to point. Any little detail could prove helpful in this complicated nature of universe jumping. 

“There’s a Time Lord called the Master who’s taken over Earth,” the woman told Rose, still standing in the shadows. “I’m the only one left, trying to stop him.” 

Another Time Lord? Rose wondered if the Doctor knew them. Did the Doctor even exist in this universe? “What are you doing to stop him?” Rose asked.

The woman chuckled darkly. “Mostly just trying to survive, running from place to place. I’ve nearly been across half the world, now. I’m telling the story of my friend, in hopes that it will be able to help reverse what has happened these past several months.” 

“The woman who walked the Earth,” Rose breathed. She’d heard bits of this tale in several universes, but she’d never caught her name. Timelines were converging and separating, leading to stories being lost and jumbled. Rose wondered if anything she’d heard had been right at all. She opened her mouth again, to ask her name when the cannon buzzed again. Time to go. 

“Good luck,” Rose told her. She had to move quickly, or she could miss her window. “There’s nothing more powerful than a story.” 

“Who are you?” the woman called, as Rose moved to walk away. 

“A friend,” Rose called back. She hit the cannon and turned to run once again. 

Martha stepped out of the shadow, eyes wide. Who had that woman been? She’d only gotten a quick glimpse at her. Once they’d stopped running, the other woman had leaned so far over that all Martha had seen was her bleached blonde hair. 

She had't seemed surprised at the idea of Time Lords, or aliens. Even with all that was going on, people still seemed surprised. This woman hadn't been. And the perception filter had barely seemed to affect her. It was as if something stronger had drawn them together, bonded them in a way Martha couldn’t understand. She didn’t even know if the Doctor would know. The moment the woman had called out to her, when Martha had realized that she could see her, had been only the first surprise this woman had given her. 

She’d met a number of strange people on her journey so far, but this disappearing woman had to be at the top. But it felt reassuring to have someone supporting her decisions, telling her she was making the right choices. She’d leaned on the Doctor for that during their journies, seeking the validation she was lacking at home, but maybe she needed to recognize her own strengths. 

Martha hadn’t had a chance to tell the woman the story of the Doctor, but somehow, she thought that she wouldn’t be around when the day came for the people of the Earth came together to defeat the Master. It was ironic, in a way, because the mysterious woman reminded her of the Doctor. 

Sweeping in and out of Martha’s life, almost as if she was never there at all.

It was a way of living a life that Martha had slowly realized over the last few months didn’t suit her. She would never be able to come and go in people’s lives like this, not again. Being a doctor, being there for people, meant more than popping in and out of their lives. She knew that now. She was bringing people hope now, in this dying world, but she wasn’t helping them, not really.

Really helping meant staying. And the life she’d led with the Doctor would never allow her to do that. Her family needed her, she realized. She could hardly be there for them if she was constantly on the run. The last year had taught that to her. Martha took a deep breath, thinking of her parents and Tish, looking scared as she left them on Valiant. When she got back to them, she wouldn’t be leaving them again. Not for a long time. 

But first, she had to continue her journey, so she would have the option to choose at all. She stood tall, looking at the flaming building in the distance. Japan was a lost cause. She’d have to keep going. Martha knew she still had a long walk to make before she would be able to rest. 

She was the woman who walked the Earth, after all. Martha had been counting the miles she’d traveled so far, but she still had so long to go, so many people to meet. All she could do was to keep walking.


End file.
